Monday, March 27, 2006

The Bush administration says it is not pursuing "regime change" in Iran. But it is promoting democracy in the Islamic Republic. This is excerpted from the "Iran Democracy Program Announcement," as posted by the State Department, seeking applicants to help with the project.

Funding Opportunity Description: The Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) announces an open competition for grant applications that support democratic governance and reform in Iran.

This represents a new MEPI funding initiative, and submissions must outline activities linked to reform and demonstrate how the proposed approach would achieve sustainable impact in Iran. . . . MEPI has particular interest in supporting programs that are innovative and that meet needs and opportunities not already addressed by current donor funding.

Accordingly, this request seeks projects to broaden and deepen within Iran the means and modes of publicly expressed and responsible citizen views on reform in all its aspects. The range of possible themes and issues includes, but is not limited to:

· freedom of association;

· the right of citizens to access independent sources of information;

· the right to advocate responsibly on important issues and debate ideas freely with other citizens and local, regional, and national government representatives without fear of retribution, including through democratically organized and legal political parties;

· the right to participate in local and national governance processes;

· the right to transparent and effective government services, including regular public accountability for monies spent;

· the right to speedy, fair, and transparent access to courts of law to settle civil, commercial, and criminal matters;

· the right to participate as candidates and supporters in transparently organized, free, fair and competitive democratic elections.

MEPI seeks to strengthen the community of Iranian reformers at the local and national levels and support reformers with demonstrated commitment as they work to build broader alliances with new stakeholder groups around issues of core democratic values.

MEPI supports programs that link reformers within and across national boundaries and use local organizational capacity to leverage opportunities to advance reform.